Parrot Updates

BorrisYeltsin writes: "A couple of updates for Parrot are in a recent This Week on Perl 6, most imporantly Parrot 0.03 is out! Get it here , the release notes are here. Also Adam Turoff has got together the Parrot FAQ version 0.2 which addresses some of the more common questions about Parrot and Perl 6."

Comments

Perl articles of the highest quality

[Anonymous Coward]

The complete developerWorks "Cultured Perl" series:

• A programmer's Linux-oriented setup
• Application configuration with Perl
• Automating UNIX system administration with Perl
• Debugging Perl with ease
• The elegance of JAPH
• Genetic algorithms applied with Perl
• One-liners 101
• Parsing with Perl modules
• Perl 5.6 for C and Java programmers
• Reading and writing Excel files with Perl
• Review of Programming Perl, Third Edition
• Save it with Perl
• Small observations about the big picture
• Writing Perl programs that speak English

Another good developerWorks resource is this long list of well-written Linux Tutorials.

somebody go fix that faq!

[jeffy124]

the faq isnt done yet - click on a link at the top and go no where. the author of it forgot to post link tags throughout the document linking it to the toc at the top

You can read more here

[krs-one]

Read more here

Seems like a cool thing, I don't know much about it though. :)

-Vic

Re:I hear Perl 6 will use Mono's JIT engine

[Elian]

Nope. Borrow some of the ideas, certainly, but our JIT's hand-rolled.

Re:Perl Documentation

[hey!]

Moderators -- don't mod somebody flamebait because you disagree with them. The above was offtopic, maybe.

I happen to disagree with a lot of what the writer says, but I think he was making substantive comments, to which I think I can respond.

Perl is emphatically not an object-oriented language.

Perhaps true depending on the criteria you use, but over the years I've come to care a lot less about this kind of taxonomic issue and more about getting things done without a fuss. The question I'd prefer to ask is, does it support object oriented design? Personally, I'd probably go with Python or Java for a project requiring large scale OO design. However, serious Perl hackers get by pretty well in Perl.

Too many simple tasks are pointlessly complicated.

True, but many complex tasks are very easy in Perl too. A lot of language flamewars unconsciously adopt a desert island scenario: if you had to do ALL your work in one language, what would that language be like? Well, you don't have to get by with one language.

Perl is notoriously impossible read and maintain.

This is simply untrue. Speaking as a very occaisional and non-expert Perl user who has had at various points needed to maintain some fairly complex perl CGIs, well structured Perl is quite easy for the non-Perl guru to maintain. This is not to say there aren't subtle issues (e.g. confusing scalar and array contexts) that can't bite a newbie trying to add substantial new functionality to Perl software, but when code has been written by a Perl expert and it is well structured, Perl is in fact very easy to maintain.

If there is a kernel of truth to this myth, it is perhaps that Perl tempts the inexperienced to create obfuscated code. However, an experienced coder with good habits will produce highly maintainable code.

Perl attempts to be all things to all people and ends up being second-rate at everything.

First of all, Perl beats anything else I've tried hands down for doing filter type programs (i.e. transforming input streams). When you do a lot of this kind of thing, it's very convenient to have a tool that spans the range of complexity from things you would do in awk to things you'd use lex and yacc for. If this is the kind of work you do, then Perl is for you. If this kind of work is not what you do or is just a very small part of what you do, then Perl will probably seem somewhat pointless to you. However, you shouldn't expect your experience to be universal.

Secondly, IMO the fact that a language is general purpose (like Perl) doesn't mean it has to be the best, or even a very good solution for every kind of problem you can imagine. There are some languages out there which are fairly good for a wide variety of problems (Java comes to mind); that is an important niche. However there are niches for languages that are excellent at one or two things. These still need to support styles of work that may not be their strongest suit, however, because real world programs have to address a mix of issues.